


Axes and Archs

by TherapyBard



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb Widogast Deserves Nice Things, Caleb Widogast Needs a Hug, Flashbacks, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, POV Caleb Widogast, POV Jester Lavorre, Prison, Self-Sacrifice, Vandalism, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27519427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TherapyBard/pseuds/TherapyBard
Summary: When in a town full of worshipers of the Lawbearer, Jester can't hold herself back from spreading a little bit of Traveler love. When she gets caught, who will take the fall?
Relationships: Jester Lavorre & Caleb Widogast, Jester Lavorre & Nott | Veth Brenatto, Nott | Veth Brenatto & Caleb Widogast
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942036
Comments: 14
Kudos: 48
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Axes and Archs

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Prison, Wrongful Imprisonment, very vague case of flashbacks, vague allusion to eating issues, discussion of police/guard brutality (thought the guards in this story are quite nice).  
> This story was written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt Taking the Blame. The idea for this story came from Doctor_Incubus. See their full idea at the end.  
> This story takes place closer to the beginning of the campaign when Molly is alive. Yasha is currently not with the group.

Jester frowned as she looked around the town the team stumbled into while trying to find new work. Almost everything, every building, every flag, had the same symbol on it of an axe with a balance scale across the two blades. “What is that?” she asked.

“That’s the symbol of the Lawbearer.” Molly bent down slightly to whisper in her ear as they walked. “You should probably keep quiet about the Traveler around here. Don’t worry, I doubt we’ll be staying long.”

“Why?” Molly put a finger to his lips before sauntering up to the front of the group with Fjord and Beau.

Jester looked at the symbol again, this time on a giant banner hanging from a huge building. She laughed to herself at the idea of the Traveler’s symbol on a banner like that. “A town of Traveler followers. That’d be pretty cool.”

Eventually, after about 30 minutes of wondering, the group found an Inn with a couple of spare rooms. “How long will you be staying?” the innkeeper asked.

Fjord started to speak, but Molly quickly cut him off. “Just for the night. Thank you.”

The innkeeper noticed the rest of the group's confused expression. “Are you sure?”

“Completely.” He held his palm out to him. “Keys, please.”

He sighed and handed them over. “Well, let me know if you change your mind.”

The group discussed how to divide the rooms. Fjord initially suggested they split the rooms by gender, but when Caleb and Nott glanced at each other nervously, they agreed to put Fjord, Molly, and Beau in one room and everyone else in the other. Rather than splitting right as they reached the rooms, everyone followed Molly into the room he chose for his group.

“Hey. Why are you so sure we’re only gonna be here one night?” Beau asked.

“This entire town is full of Erathis worshipers. Do you really think people who follow the goddess of civilization and laws are going to have much work for asshole mercenaries? Plus, with the way we normally act, it will be a miracle if we last the night without any of us in jail.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Fjord said. “How about we all just lay low in our rooms, Caleb and I will go out to get some food and supplies, and we’ll leave tomorrow morning?”

Everyone agreed easily enough and left to make themselves comfortable in their temporary rooms. Caleb knelt in front of Nott before leaving. “You’ll be good, ja? No funny business until we’re out of town?”

“Of course. If you say so, Caleb, I’ll just stay here.”

“Good.” Caleb got up and left with Fjord.

* * *

Jester stared at Caleb that night, waiting for him to finally relax and begin his cute quiet snoring. When he did, she got up and gently shook Nott’s shoulder. She put a hand over her mouth before she could alert Caleb. “Shh, it’s me. I want your help with something.”

“Sure, what is it?” Jester pulled out her paints and smiled at her. “No, we can’t. I told Caleb I’d stay here and from what Molly said that sounds like a really bad idea.”

“Oh, come on, Nott. We’re only staying here one night. We’ll leave in the morning and no one here will ever know it was us.”

Nott made one last worried glance at Caleb before smiling. “Okay, but we need to hurry.” She got out of bed and nodded for Jester to follow her.

The two of them tiptoed down the hall and left through the inn’s back entrance. “Let’s make our way to that big building with the banner,” Jester said. They did so, Jester drawing little symbols on walls along the way as Nott stood watch. They went down an alleyway to get behind the building which, upon closer inspection, seemed to be some sort of city hall.

“Okay, you stand over there.” Jester pointed to the alley entrance. “I’m gonna draw a big one here.”

She almost entirely finished drawing the arch when Nott tapped her on the shoulder. “I saw someone. We should go.” Jester nodded and the two of them went the other way down the alley. They quickly found themselves blocked off by a fence. “Shit.” She started climbing the fence. Jester did the same. 

She’d just made it to the top when she heard someone behind them yell, “Stop!” She hopped down and started running.

Nott pulled out her wire. “Caleb, are you awake? We need help.”

“Are we in range?” Jester asked.

“He didn’t respond, so I don’t think so.” They ran in the direction of the inn, zigzagging through alleys to throw off the guards, as Nott cast the message cantrip over and over.

As they got closer, they saw guards running around screaming orders at each other. “There’s two of ‘em, one much shorter than the other. Think they’re a Halfling.” They were blocking the only way out of the alley besides the barbed fence in front of them that connected directly to the inn. The lock was on the other side and Nott couldn’t reach it.

“Caleb, can you hear me now,” Nott whispered to the wire. Her eyes widened. “Yes, we’re outside the inn. Go out the back door and open the fence to the left.” She waited a second before lowering the wire. “He’s coming.”

All they could do was wait. Jester prayed to the Traveler. ‘Please don’t let them find us.’ The backdoor to the hotel burst open and Caleb ran to them. “Thank you thank you!”

“Time for that later.” Caleb adjusted the padlock on his side to help Nott get to it. They could hear guards screaming from behind them. Once she got it unlocked, Caleb opened the door and pulled them to his side. Jester made it to the inn door, pulling Nott behind her, when she realized Caleb wasn’t following.

“Ca-” Jester put a hand over Nott’s mouth and finished pulling her inside. The last thing she saw of Caleb was him closing the fence with him on the other side.

“Oh no! What do we do?” Jester asked, tears flooding her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Beau said, running at them from the hallway. “I heard someone running down past the room. Are you guys alright?”

“We need to get Caleb!” Nott said. “There were a bunch of guards chasing us and he helped us escape but they got him.”

“Why did he do that?” Jester looked back at the door. “He could’ve come with us.”

“They would’ve kept following you,” Beau pointed out. “This was the best way to make sure the guards stopped and didn’t find the rest of us.” She looked down at Nott, who looked ready to cry. “Don’t worry. Let’s go tell the others so we can get him out of there.”

“No, you don’t-! ...Fine.”

Jester gave Nott a side hug as the three of them made it back to the rooms. They woke Fjord and Molly up to explain what happened.

“So, let me get this straight,” Fjord pinched the bridge of his nose. “You heard Molly say that people here follow a law goddess and we should be careful, and decided to run around vandalizing buildings with the symbol of an illegal deity?”

“I know, I’m sorry.” Jester wrapped her arms around herself. “I didn’t think we would get caught and Caleb would do that.”

“Well, there’s no point talking about that now,” Molly said. He looked past her at Nott. Jester turned around to see her was staying by the door looking at the floor furiously. “Is there something up we don’t know about?”

“... Caleb wouldn’t want me to tell you much about this, but you already know we met in jail. It didn’t… It wasn’t good for him.”

Molly sighed. “Yeah, jail’s rarely good for anyone. But if you’re worried about guards being rough with him, don’t be.”

“Why not?” Beau asked. “Didn’t you say these guys all take laws seriously?”

“Yeah. I’m not an expert on the Lawbearer, but I know a guy who was in jail in a town like this. They have pretty strict rules about how to treat prisoners and the rights they have. No one touched him and they fed him alright.” He patted Nott on the head. “Don’t worry about Caleb, darling. He’ll be fine while we figure out how to get him out of there.”

* * *

Caleb had been to jail many times. Sometimes it was for good reason, such as him stealing some food or scamming someone for their gold. Other times, he was just a dirty homeless man in the wrong place at the wrong time. This time was different. He chose this, actively sacrificed himself to save his friends from this. Perhaps that was why the chains wrapped around his wrists felt lighter than they usually would.

The guards took him to the same building the group had passed earlier, marked by the giant banner displaying Erathis’s symbol. Inside, he found a stark white room with a checkered carpet running from the door to a council of people lining the other wall. The guards gently dragged him forward and had him kneel in front of the group. They were mostly humans of a darker complexion, though he did notice a halfling to the far left. Caleb had seen things like this before, but mostly in stories of traitors being brought in front of kings. ‘God, what did Jester and Nott do?’ The only thing that stuck out to Caleb as different from that of storybook councils was the way they all slumped in their chairs as if they had only just woken up.

“You, good sir,” the lady in the center chair said, “have been accused of vandalizing our city, including this very building, the heart of us all. What do you have to say to this?”

Caleb wasn’t used to opportunities to defend himself in times like this. Of course this would happen when he had no interest in doing so. “I am guilty.”

“Funny,” said another of the council members, this time an older gentleman, “we were given word that our guards spotted two criminals, neither of which matching your description.”

The first lady reached into the pockets of her robes and pulled out a white rock of some kind. “Guards, unchain this man and have him hold the Sadic Stone.” They did as instructed. Shocked, Caleb rubbed his wrists. The guard had him unwrap the bandages on his hand before placing the rock in his palm. “Once in contact with bare skin, the person in possession of the stone cannot tell lies. Answer me again, are you the criminal we are looking for?”

He took a deep breath. ‘I’ll have to be careful.’ “No.”

“Then why did you claim to be.”

“... I wanted to protect the two who did it.”

“Why?”

“... I disagree with the laws in the Empire that only allow the worship of certain gods. I know the symbol they used. It’s for the Traveler. He is a chaotic god, but good at his core.”

The council members looked at each other, making odd motions with their hands, before the lady turned back to face him. “I appreciate your desire to protect those you deem innocent, but we cannot stand for people assisting those who defy the laws of the Lawbearer. We will speak more of your exact punishment later, but for now you will be escorted to a comfortable cell with minimal guard.”

A few minutes later, Caleb found himself in a medium sized cell. The door slammed behind him and memories flooded his mind. He was in the asylum. Men were screaming. Other, much more painful screams joined. Caleb shook his head in an attempt to bring himself back to reality. No matter how comfortable the people of this town made their prisons, nothing would spare him this punishment.

* * *

Nott and Jester huddled in the cart as the rest of the Mighty Nein made their rescue attempt. The cart had already been packed, so they would be able to leave the second they got Caleb back. The group agreed the two who had actually committed the crimes Caleb took the blame for should stay back just in case something when wrong.

Despite Molly’s words of comfort, Nott still kept on looking back at the jail worriedly. “Aw, don’t be sad. They’re gonna get Caleb out and everything will be okay.” In all honesty, Jester was nervous, too. She’d seen Caleb after he killed people with fire. ‘Will he be like that when he gets back?’

“You weren’t with us when we met. Caleb… he was so scared and sad. I had to make him eat at first. I don’t… I don’t want to go back to that, and now it’s my fault.”

“Hey, it’s my fault, too. Don’t feel too bad. Plus, he’s only been there for a few hours. There’s no way he’d be that sad already.” She said that, but she also remembered how fast Caleb could go from relieved to terrified, from victorious to lost in his own head.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” She didn’t take her eyes off the building.

About an hour later, the two of them heard a stampede of footsteps towards them. Molly hopped on the cart and gave Caleb a hand getting in. “Go, go!” Beau and Fjord climbed onto the horses and they took off. Sighing in relief, Molly sat against the side of the cart. “Well done, everyone.” He lightly backhanded Caleb’s knee. “Good to have you back.”

“Caleb!” Nott jumped onto Caleb and wrapped her arms around him.

“Hallo, Nott. It is good to see that you missed me.” Caleb’s posture was stiff and he’d flinched a little when Nott touched him, but other than that he seemed normal.

“I’m sorry, Caleb. They didn’t do anything to you, did they?” Jester asked.

“No, I am fine. I can honestly say that is by far the best cell I have ever been kept in. And there is no need to apologize, either of you. Just, ah, think your plans for trickery out more next time, ja?”

“Of course. And, um, thank you.”

Caleb blinked at her for a few moments before nodding. “No need. It was just the most logical move. It is easier to break one person out of jail than two, ja?” He looked down at Nott, who was still hugging him, and smiled.

Jester smirked before moving to the other corner of the cart, closer to Beau and Fjord. ‘“Just the most logical move.” Oh, Caleb, I don’t even know why you’re bothering to hide that you love us.’

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this. Note that I am only a few episodes into campaign one, so I'm sorry if I've missed/contradicted lore regarding the Lawbearer. I mostly just looked at a similar deity from the pantheon for an original world I'm making and put my take on them onto Erathis. The Sadic Stone is also a part of my world. I have no idea if there is a similar item in actual DnD lore.  
> Doctor_Incubus's full idea: getting arrested for jester or nott/veth shenanigans perhaps? Or maybe something more serious where he’s part of some mission they’re on that goes badly and it’s easier to get one person out of jail rather than seven so he sets himself up a bit to clear the others  
> At this point in time, I am still taking ideas for the following prompts: Disowned by Family, Electrocution, Buried in Rubble, Public Humiliation, and Confined to Bed Rest.


End file.
